By Mabinty M. Kamara
In an effort to respond to the basic needs of the victims of the fire incident that recently occurred at the Susan’s Bay community, the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Sierra Leone has joined Caritas Freetown to extend its feeding programme to the victims.
The disaster according to official reports, affected over 7000 residents including children, women and people with disability. Since the incident, many humanitarian organizations have reached out with aid to the victims.
The Executive Director of Caritas Freetown who doubles as Acting National Director for Caritas Sierra Leone, Reverend Father Peter Conteh said it was unfortunate that they have to be repeatedly responding to disasters. He said Caritas, EU and the Mayor’s office were about to celebrate with the EU and the Mayor’s office, the success of not recording serious flooding in the last rainy season due to flood mitigation strategies used, when the unfortunate Susan’s bay fire outbreak occurred.
“And this one has been very severe. Almost every year, we do respond to fire incidents but this is in the highest magnitude I have ever seen. But at Caritas, in terms of emergency, we pride ourselves as the first to be there and the last to leave and in the sense that we would like to ensure that the people live a more dignified life than they were before,” he said.
He wished they can continue assisting them until they have sustainable support.
He said since the disaster happened, Caritas as part of a consortium called Partnering to Serve Humanity has been providing one hot meal a day for over 3,500 individuals out of the over 7,000 affected persons, some of whom now live with relatives outside the community.
It was against this backdrop that they approached the German embassy in Freetown for support to extend the feeding programmes to at least two which is breakfast and launch. The German embassy through Caritas is currently supporting over 3,000 victims in the community with hot tea and bread.
Father Conteh added that the food support is expected to last for twenty one days after which an exit will be determined in line with the plans of the government towards the community.
The German Deputy Head of Mission to Sierra Leone, Patrick Dzierzon and wife together with the wife of the Head of Mission, Ambassador Horst Gruner on Thursday 8th March 2021 joined the Caritas volunteers to serve the community the breakfast.
Dzierzon told newsmen at the scene of the breakfast distribution that he was humbled and happy to serve the people and was pleased with the mannerisms and orderly behavior of the people despite their poverty and vulnerable status.
“I was positively surprised at the humbleness of the people, if you have next to nothing and someone gives you little and you are satisfied, nobody said ‘give me more’. Everybody was satisfied so it was really touching,” he said.
He said they are investing about Le 600,000,000 (six hundred million Leones) on the breakfast feeding programme. He called on other organizations to help address the other needs of the people.
Copyright © 2021 Politico Online (09/04/21)
